To reduce clutter. Continue where we previously left off.
Kathleen, Min, Rion, and Judi are at the marketplace. Some are being good Samaratins, others are being geniuses (in their own right), and others...well, they do have a Prince. One could suppose a little sightseeing wouldn't hurt.
Affrauiel is somewhere in limbo, with an undetermined force that wasn't meant to exist killing yet another force that also was never meant to exist. She'll pop up back into reality at some point in time.
Other characters are secretly pulling strings and setting the initiative behind closed doors.